Reading, Drinking, Reading, Napping…Reading

The Dark Winter by David Mark

I found this book by way of recommendations for a later book in the series. I was interested in the series set in Hull as I’ve not read anything set there before to my knowledge and I have seen quite a few posts from online friends about Hull, City of Culture. I was fortunate in that my library had book 1 in the series.

DS Aector McAvoy is just returning from an injury and from working a case that was quashed due to political connections and probably the embarrassment of higher-ups. He is working with a serious crimes team and is somewhat of a dark horse to his team members. His boss Detective Superintendent Pharoah sees potential in him and they form a good team. Aector becomes personally involved in a crime due to being on the scene moments after it has occurred and interacting with the perpetrator. As one crime becomes many Aector follows his instincts and his investigation to uncover connections between cases and ultimately reveal the tragic story behind it all.

Aector is not a religious man, but is highly moral. He has sense of justice and desires to see it served. He strives to live up to the pedestal his wife has place him on and to be seen as a good, competent detective. He is very happily married and his wife and marriage are definitely his grounding point. Really interesting, well thought out character, different from many other detectives, who show their trials by addictions and unhealthy relationships or no connections outside of work. In some ways, he reminds me of Inspector Banks from Peter Robinson’s series.

I really liked this, I found it well written and engaging with some great characters. I will be reading more in the series.